


One After The Other, Consecutively, In A Row

by hucklberi



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, Schitt's Creek
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Hunger Games Setting, Angst, Death, F/F, F/M, Happy ending? Not so much, M/M, Murder times, Time to watch your favorites kill eachother!
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-19
Updated: 2021-01-19
Packaged: 2021-03-17 17:21:19
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28852722
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hucklberi/pseuds/hucklberi
Summary: “District 1, your tributes for the 67th annual Hunger Games, David and Alexis Rose!”
Relationships: Johnny Rose/Moira Rose, Patrick Brewer/David Rose, Theodore "Ted" Mullens/Alexis Rose
Comments: 6
Kudos: 14





	One After The Other, Consecutively, In A Row

_ This was not supposed to happen.  _

David stared blankly at the stage as his little sister was corralled up the steps. She had volunteered. Volunteered to be a tribute in the Hunger Games. He had no idea what she was thinking. His body was completely still, aside from his writhing hands and the rapid rise and fall of his chest. As much as he tried to breathe, the air seemed to get caught at a knot in his throat. 

“Congratulations, darling! What’s your name?” District 1’s escort, Antonia Silverfall, was speaking, but David couldn’t focus on the words until he heard his sister’s voice.

“Alexis Rose,” she stammered, obviously trying to sound confident but failing to hide her fear.

Antonia beamed at her, caught up in the excitement of the Reaping. “Well, aren’t you a doll! Okay, sweetheart, go on.” She pushed Alexis to one side of the stage before returning to her place at the center.

Still struggling to breathe, David’s mind whirled in a million different directions as he tried to process what just happened. A girl next to him scowled and swore under her breath; she had volunteered as well. Normally, only one person per gender volunteered: the person selected as the most eligible candidate to win the Hunger Games. It was unusual for somebody without formal training to volunteer, and seen as an insult to the district as a whole, but the rules remained. Whoever volunteered first would be selected.

His sister, only thirteen years old, was going to be in the Hunger Games, and he had no idea why. She was impulsive, but she wasn’t stupid, and only someone stupid would do something like this. Despite the reputation of the district, not everybody in Districts 1, 2, and 4 trained to be in the Hunger Games, and if they did, they didn’t volunteer until later in their teen years. A child had little chance of surviving against young adults. Regardless of her age, Alexis definitely hadn’t trained for this. She wasn’t what the lesser districts called a “Career.” She was a kid, supposed to go into makeup development or marketing, not a death trap.    
  
“All you disappointed faces, don’t worry! You’re young; there will be plenty more chances for you to get your glory.” Antonia’s peppy words shook David from his thoughts. “Don’t go yet though, folks, for now it’s time to choose our boy of the year!” She gracefully twirled her hand into the large glass bowl holding thousands of slips of papers and plucked one out, reading it carefully. “Our male tribute is. . . Dario Thallington! Come on up, hon.”   
  
David tilted his head up to the sky as whispering broke out around him. He fixed his eyes on the fluffy white clouds covering the sun and breathed shallowly, blocking out every noise besides those coming from the stage.

“Let’s see if we have anyone quite as eager as little Alexis hoping to volunteer, shall we?” Antonia smiled condescendingly at the crowds of teens who were all shifting anxiously. “Would any of you boys like to volunteer as tribute?” As she finished her sentence, a deep, gruff voice called out quickly. David was quicker.

The other boys around him glared. Although David couldn’t see who else had volunteered, he was sure that they were enraged, along with the rest of the district. His and Alexis’ volunteering had essentially stripped their district’s chance for glory this year.

Faintly, David registered Antonia calling him up to the stage, a confused grin spread across her face. “Well, I suppose we have our male tribute, then! Come on, hurry along.” David stepped forward stiffly, making his way through the crowds of his acquaintances, classmates, friends. As he walked onto the stage, his eyes trained on the wood below his feet, he heard the escort asking his name. 

“Um. I’m David Rose?” His voice tilted up at the end, making it seem like he was asking a question. Antonia let out a light laugh, leading him across from Alexis. 

“Oh, my! Now, if I remember correctly, our female tribute whom we just welcomed to the stage shares your last name. Could there be a relation?”

Licking his lips and shifting from one foot to the other, David muttered, “Uh, she’s my sister.”

Antonia gasped theatrically, leaning closer to David. “And would I be correct in assuming that you didn’t plan to volunteer?” Unable to force a response out, David nodded tightly. “How exciting!” She squealed before walking away from him to the center of the stage once again. “District 1, your tributes for the 67th annual Hunger Games, David and Alexis Rose!”

\---

After an excruciatingly long speech by Antonia, a congratulatory word from the mayor, and a farewell from the people of District 1 that nobody would call pleasant or even remorseful, David found himself being crowded into a small room in Town Hall. He sat on a sofa against the wall farthest from the door and stared at the ceiling, shoulders hunched. Trying to wrap his mind around the spiral of events that had just taken place, he closed his eyes. He knew that now was the time when people would say goodbye to him, but would anybody even come? Nobody at school really liked him, although he couldn’t claim that he had ever tried to be liked. Besides that, there were a few family friends, but they were more attached to his parents than to him. His parents were all he had. And Alexis.

The thought of Alexis grounded him. A picture entered his head: his thirteen year-old sister sitting alone in a room as empty as the one he sat in, trying to put on a brave face as her many friends comforted and questioned her. David’s mouth twisted up to one side, wishing that he could be with her. As angry as he was with her for volunteering for this stupid game, he had volunteered to play it too for a reason; she was probably the person he cared most about in the world. He wondered if she would be allowed to come into his room when it came time to talk to their parents, or if they’d be forced to say separate goodbyes. 

His question was answered when the door creaked open and his parents hurried in. Moira was scowling as she berated a guard, “I don’t understand why we couldn’t give our farewells to both of them at once. We are a family! Have you no heart?” Ignoring her, the guard closed the door and Moira’s attentions were immediately set on a different subject: David. “Oh, my dear, what have you done? How will we survive with no children? Your poor father’s heart- I fear it cannot take such pain.”

Speaking for the first time since he stepped onto the stage, David recoiled defensively. “What have  _ I _ done? Shouldn’t you be asking Alexis that? I did this for her!”

“Oh, Alexis, the sweet girl, she didn’t know any better,” Moira cried, sinking into an armchair.

“What Moira means, David, is that Alexis… well, she thought she was doing us a favor,” Johnny spoke, putting a hand on Moira’s shoulder. “She, uh, she said that if, when, she wins, we’ll be set for life.”

_ Of course,  _ David thought. He sighed with resignation as he questioned how he hadn’t realized before; Alexis just wanted to save the family from their sudden poverty. Poverty wasn’t exactly the right word- his family was nowhere near being as poor as the farmers and miners in Districts 11 and 12, but compared to the grandeur they used to live in, it felt like they were one step from being on the streets. Just a few months before, Moira had angered the wrong official, and the Rose family had been stripped of everything: their house, jobs, even their personal possessions. Although a nice enough family had taken them in, life was miserable, and Alexis hadn’t been adjusting well to their new living arrangements. She had to move schools, and being close enough to hear her parents arguments over money didn’t do her any good. “She does know that she, um, won’t win, right?” David asked carefully, placing each word into the air as if they were precious diamonds. “I mean, she’s thirteen, and has basically no experience with, uh, fighting. And stuff.” 

“Her naivety has killed her!” Moira let out a dramatic sob, turning her head away from her husband and son.

“Okay, well, calm down, you two,” Johnny said, always the voice of reason. “I’ll pull a few strings, you know I still have  _ some _ connections in the Capitol, and they’ll let you both out.”

David shook his head, scoffing. “They don’t care about us. They never did and they definitely don’t now.” He squinted up at the ceiling, thinking. “We may not know how to fight, but Alexis is… well, Alexis. Everyone will love her, and, um, I’ll be there to protect her.”

While Moira cried quietly into her shoulder, Johnny nodded. “David, look. We would never ask you to, uh,  _ prioritize _ Alexis over yourself.” He said the word carefully, avoiding what everyone was thinking:  _ Sacrifice. Die.  _ “But it does seem as if she might have the… best odds against all of this.”

“Yeah. Yeah, I know. I’ll do whatever. I’d rather it be me than her.”

While Moira and Johnny said their goodbyes, it struck David that his parents had never spoken so lovingly to him. Funny, really, that it took him being sent to his death for them to say that they loved him. Regardless, he was grateful for it. Before Moira could drag on her elaborate speech, the door opened and a guard gestured for them to exit. With a final hug and at least three glances back at David, his parents disappeared and he was left alone, once again. Instead of thinking about how he would never see either of them again, he kept an image of Alexis in his mind. She was all that mattered. She would make it out, with or without him.


End file.
